I am now in full pursuit of a BW leisure mooring for our new boat. I have downloaded a list of local sites up for auction from BW and I am slowly working my way through. Now, I know that BW would like to get a good price for the moorings. I would also be happy to pay a fair price. However, I would also prefer to pay an asking price rather than get involved in a bidding war. The next thing BW will be the auctioning of sites on eBay or other similar site.
What happens for instance if there are several moorings that I could bid on. Can I bid on more than one? There is always the possibility that I could end up with more than one mooring! What happens if I win more than one, should I just say to BW, I will only take this one. - Oh, by the way you can have the other four back!
From the BW moorings site "Before you bid you should be aware that you will be charged 5% of the guide price for each successful auction or tender that you fail to complete. For this reason, we recommend that you wait for the outcome of one auction / tender before submitting a bid / tender for another vacancy." Now call me old and cynical but it looks to me like BW are wanting their cake and intend to eat it!
There is also a hidden side effect of bidding wars rather than a first come first served policy. Bidding only creates a false "level of worth or economic value" for a given area. Whilst this might be good for BW it is going to be bad for the pockets of the punters.
I went to view another mooring location, the existing people on site are all paying different mooring rates. One person who has been in the same mooring for 13 years is paying up to £300 more for his boat, which is the smallest boat in the group! There are always vacancies at this place. So this year, everyone is going to give BW
From the BW moorings site "The Reserve Price reflects British Waterways' cost of providing the vacancy. It is the price below which it would not be economic for us to let the vacancy." This is no more than BW bean counter speak. No matter how one looks at it. A mooring not let is a 100% loss of income. A mooring let at half the cost, is only a 50% loss. It is time to get rid of the reserve price which just inflates the starting bid.
Later
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